Amish Quilts

Fifty years ago, no one bothered pairing the adjective Amish with the noun quilt. Few people outside Amish settlements knew there was anything distinct about the types of patchwork bedcovers Amish families kept folded in cedar chests or displayed on their guest beds. Yet in the intervening years, Amish quilts have shifted in status from obscurity to sought-after artworks.

Amish women have been making quilts since the late 1800s, but only in the 1970s, when art enthusiasts began comparing Amish quilts to abstract modernist paintings, did Amish quilts become “cult objects.” Collectors, curators, and designers loved the solid-colored fabrics and bold, graphic designs of classic Amish quilts, which helped transform these textiles into affordable works of art. Amish entrepreneurs responded to the quilts’ newfound popularity, making quilts to sell directly to outsiders. “Amish,” in turn, functioned as a brand name, appealing to those who wanted a handmade, authentic quilt.

The craft has never fossilized, but has been a living, evolving, and diverse tradition, adapted by creative quiltmakers, capitalized upon by businesswomen eager to earn a livelihood, and embraced within both Amish communities and the broader artistic and consumer worlds

Background

The Amish religion originated in Europe in the 1500s and its members began immigrating to North America in the mid-1700s. Identifiable by their plain dress and use of horse and buggies, the protestant Christian group’s faith emphasizes humility, adult baptism, mutual aid, non-violence, and yielding to the will of God and to others. Today, over 300,000 Amish live in settlements in 31 states across the U.S.

Some Amish women began making quilts in the mid to late 1800s, developing a classic style characterized by the use of solid colors and geometric patterns, but often diverging from this template in unexpected ways. After outsiders “discovered” Amish quilts in the late 1960s, the Amish responded by developing businesses selling quilts. Amish quiltmakers now carry on a living tradition, evolving and adapting their craft.

About the Guest Curator

Janneken Smucker, a 5th generation Mennonite quiltmaker, is author of Amish Quilts: Crafting an American Icon (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013).

As Assistant Professor of History at West Chester University, she specializes in digital history and American material culture. She has served as a board member for the national non-profit Quilt Alliance, since 2005 and is its current president.

A 2003 graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s MA program in Textile History and Quilt Studies, she has continued to partner with the International Quilt Museum, serving as an Associate Fellow

Featured Media

Works in the Exhibition

Center Diamond
Maker unknown
Circa 1920-1940
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Machine pieced, hand quilted
Jonathan Holstein Collection, 2003.003.0072

With its bold primary focal point, the Center Diamond pattern is among the most iconic of Amish quilt designs. Made almost exclusively within a corner of the Amish settlement in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Center Diamonds serve as a canvas for the exquisite quilting designs for which Amish quilters have become famous. Art critic Robert Hughes featured a similar quilt in his survey of American art, American Visions, calling Amish quilts “America’s first abstract art.” Center Diamond quilts continue to have appeal both on the antique market and among new quilts made within the Amish quiltmaking industry.

Bear’s Paw
Clara Bontrager
Dated 1874
Probably made in Holmes County, Ohio
Hand pieced, hand quilted
Ardis & Robert James Collection, 1997.007.0340

Ask an Amish quiltmaker when Amish women started making quilts, and she will likely answer that Amish women have “always made quilts.” Yet when Amish families began emigrating from Europe to North America in the mid-1700s, they brought neither quilts nor quilting know-how with them. Like other Germanic transplants, they used a bag stuffed with straw as a mattress, a featherbed to provide warmth and perhaps a woven coverlet as a top layer. At some point during the mid- to late-1800s Amish began making quilts in great numbers. By this point, Amish had established settlements in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, and quiltmaking practices seemed to have developed independently in these areas. This quilt is among the earliest known dated Amish quilts.

Whole Cloth
Maker unknown
1868
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Hand pieced and quilted
Gift of David Wheatcroft and Eve Wheatcroft Granick, 2005.055.0001

Quilts with marked dates serve as important historical clues as they are benchmarks that can reveal not just details about that specific quilt, but also help piece together a timeline for quilt history. This quilt, stitched with the date “1868,” is one of the earliest dated quilts from the Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Amish settlement. Acquired via an Amish man who bought quilts from his co-religionists and sold them to well-connected dealers, the quilt mysteriously has been cut in two. Known among the Amish as “plain quilts,” many of these seemingly simple whole cloth variations are anything but plain. The unpieced quilt top serves as a vast canvas for the intricate quilting designs for which Amish quilters have become famous. Look closely to see interlocking cables, a central field of “pumpkin seeds” and corner blocks with eight-pointed stars.

Ohio Star
Maker unknown
1905
Probably made in Holmes County, Ohio
Machine pieced, hand quilted
Gift of the Robert & Ardis James Foundation, 2008.003.0002

Historically, the colors in many Amish quilts reflected the clothing choices of the local church district; most groups have adhered to plain, solid-colored fabrics for dressmaking, and women have frequently used leftovers from making clothes in their quilts, exemplifying the faith’s emphasis on frugality and thrift. This adaptive use of leftover—or other cheap or second-hand fabric—resulted in quilts made from a wide variety of weaves and hues, sometimes using scraps smaller than an inch in width, as in some of the blocks of this Ohio Star quilt. Its Chinese Coin border makes striking use of bits and pieces of colors and fabric types popular among the Amish in the early 1900s.

Ohio Star
Probably made by SDC Yoder
1906
Possibly made in Holmes County, Ohio
Machine pieced, hand quilted
Ardis & Robert James Collection, 2009.039.0026

Quiltmaking traditions likely developed separately among geographically dispersed Amish settlements. In the early 1900s, Ohio Amish quiltmakers favored repeat block patterns like this Star pattern, often featuring bright colors against a dark background. Notice how particular this maker was in her choices, laying out the blocks to form a pleasing arrangement of color. The narrow border separating the design field from the wide outer border is another typical design choice among midwestern Amish quiltmakers, as is the bold sashing between the blocks. The Amish established a settlement in Holmes County in northeastern Ohio in 1808, but did not begin quilting there in great numbers until the end of the century.

Pinecraft Friendship Quilt
Circa 1945
Made in Pinecraft, Florida
Hand appliquéd, embroidered and quilted
Gift of Lindsey Miller-Lerman, 2007.041.0018

Since the late 1920s, the neighborhood of Pinecraft on the outskirts of Sarasota, Florida, has attracted both Amish and Mennonites. While a small community has lived there year-round since 1931, many northern Amish come there to winter. Today the community has grown to an estimated 4,000 annual “snowbirds” who take buses from Amish settlements. In the mid- 1940s, a group of young women visiting Pinecraft collaborated on this friendship quilt, embroidering their names and their home communities into its blocks. The act tied them together, despite the distance of their home settlements in Ohio, Indiana, Virginia and Pennsylvania. Its fanciful design, using a Mountain Mist pattern, belies its Amish origins; indeed, according to this quilt’s donor, the Amish woman who owned it kept it stored away because of its ornate design.

Cake Stand
Possibly made by Mary Stoltzfus Lapp (1875-1955)
Circa 1920-1940
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Machine pieced, hand quilted
Jonathan Holstein Collection, 2003.003.0090

Mary Stoltzfus Lapp made quilt tops in this pattern for each of her and her husband Daniel’s “namesakes”—the grandchildren named after them. Family members regarded this pattern as novel and special. Around 1940 neighbor Amanda Stoltzfus saw one of the Basket quilts and asked to borrow the pattern, having her daughter Sarah piece quilts for herself and four younger siblings. When asked about these quilts as elderly women, Sarah and her sister referred to the identical bedcovers as “our quilts,” suggesting this special pattern bound the siblings together. The pattern, however, was not distinct outside the Amish community, as the Ladies Art Company had published it in its catalog since 1895. Perhaps Lapp adapted it from this published source, introducing a new and innovative quilt pattern to her community.

Circa 1920
Made in Weatherford, Oklahoma
Machine pieced, hand quilted
Gift of the Robert & Ardis James Foundation, 2005.039.0005

As in the community of quiltmakers at large, some individual Amish quiltmakers possessed distinct design skills that resulted in one-of-a-kind quilts. Barbara Yoder’s masterpiece, a striking variation of a Nine Patch which simultaneously forms a large bold X across the quilt’s surface, is just that type of quilt. Barbara, like many midwestern Amish throughout the twentieth century, moved frequently—living in Indiana, Mississippi, Kansas and Oklahoma at different times in her life—as land, weather, money, family, and faith provided new opportunities and challenges. Yoder’s quilt was once part of the Esprit corporate collection. Her granddaughter-in-law learned that it hung on the walls there, and in correspondence with Esprit’s curator, she wrote, “[Barbara Yoder] is not really your old-time hard-core Amish lady!” Her quilt says as much.

Crazy Quilt
Made by Lizzie Schlabach Miller
Circa 1935
Made in Holmes County, Ohio
Hand appliquéd, embroidered and quilted
Gift of the Robert & Ardis James Foundation, 2008.003.0001

By the time Lizzie Schlabach Miller made her Crazy quilt, the Victorian-era fad for quilts pieced from lush silks and velvets and decorated with fanciful embroidery had passed. Lizzie’s sentimental—and somewhat morbid—inscription, “You see my name here when I am dead and gone,” further links this quilt with Victorian sensibilities. As typical among Amish quiltmaking fashions, Amish quilt trends lagged behind those of the dominant society. Yet the Amish have never been immune from the fashions of the larger world, adopting and adapting technologies, conventions, and fashions, but doing so at their own pace. Notice the ornate, well-organized feather quilting stitches, masked by the bold, seemingly random piecing.

Basket of Flowers
Maker unknown
Circa 1935
Possibly made in Ohio
Machine pieced, hand appliquéd and quilted
Jonathan Holstein Collection, 2003.003.0108

During the first several decades of the 1900s, when Amish women made quilts in great numbers, they were part of a nationwide quiltmaking trend, and, like non-Amish quilters, drew inspiration from commercially available design sources. This maker adapted a pattern available with a purchase of Mountain Mist quilt batting, a product of both industrialization and consumer culture, forces to which the Amish have not been immune. She used the Easter egg colors popular in the 1930s, but set the cheery blocks in a typically Midwestern Amish setting, with a wide outer border and dark background, and narrow inner border. Her large, sparse and visible appliqué stitches suggest she may have been unaccustomed to the technique, which not all Amish quiltmakers used.

Sailboat
Maker unknown
1982
Possibly made in Middlefield, Ohio
Machine pieced, hand quilted
Ardis & Robert James Collection, 1997.007.0090

The iconic style of Amish quiltmaking features saturated jewel-toned colors, often on a dark background. This quilt defies that stereotype. It is not an anomaly. In many Amish settlements, quilters made blue and white quilts sometimes referring to them as “everyday quilts” or “summer quilts.” When Amish quilts resembling modern art became status symbols among collectors and curators, pickers buying quilts directly from Amish homes typically ignored quilts like this. One dealer noted: “It is difficult as a dealer to sell to someone and convince them that this is indeed an Amish quilt.” A curator commented of another quilt: “Too much white—has non-Amish feel.”

One Patch/Checkerboard
Maker unknown
Circa 1900-1920
United States
Machine pieced, hand quilted
Ardis & Robert James Collection, 1997.007.0469

Esprit women’s vest
Circa 1985
United States

The Esprit clothing company, founded in San Francisco in the early 1970s, became home to a significant collection of Amish quilts after its co-founder, Doug Tompkins, visited the landmark 1971 exhibit, “Abstract Design in American Quilts” at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. Tompkins was smitten, and he bought his first quilt that year—a red and white baskets quilt. His next two quilts were Amish, a Center Diamond and a Sunshine and Shadow, both from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

By the late 1970s quilts filled the walls of Esprit’s headquarters, which it opened to visitors to take self-guided tours. Tompkins eventually limited his collecting exclusively to Amish quilts, favoring the strong graphics and simplicity of the Lancaster County community. With these great pieces of design all around them, Esprit’s designers no doubt drew inspiration from the quilts. The links between this Checkerboard quilt, which Esprit once owned, and a mid-1980s Esprit vest are clear.

Flaming Baskets
Produced by Amish Design, Jeromesville, Ohio
Pieced by Amanda Hostetler; Quilted by Anna Miller; Design by Susan Delagrange
1982
Machine pieced, hand quilted
Ardis & Robert James Collection, 1997.007.0510

With consumer interest in Amish quilts growing, Amish and non-Amish developed businesses to tap into this demand. Antiques dealers George and Susan Delagrange formed Amish Design to hire Amish women to make quilts that looked like those from the early 1900s. They knew that antique Amish quilts had become expensive and were sensitive to light. Amish Design catered its products to interior designers, architects, and corporate collections. The Delagranges designed patterns drawn directly from old quilts, sourced 100% cotton fabrics—when many Amish preferred using synthetics, and used the colors found on dark quilts when many Amish families preferred lighter colors and printed fabrics. Amish Design’s method worked. Without knowing this quilt’s back story, one could easily mistake it for 1932, instead of 1982.

Nine Patch
Susan Hershberger Gingerich
Circa 1995
Probably made in Wayne County, Ohio
Machine pieced, hand quilted
Sara Miller Collection, 2000.007.0014

Within the Amish religion, great variety exists from settlement to settlement, and from church district to church district. The Swartzendruber Amish are a conservative group with a significant presence in eastern Ohio. Unlike more progressive Amish groups, they still make quilts in old dark colors and traditional patterns. In the mid-1990s, Swartzendruber Amish member Susan Hershberger Gingerich made this small quilt as a wallhanging to sell at Helping Hands Quilt Shop in Berlin, Ohio. Following an unknown path, this quilt made its way into the hands of Amish crib quilt collector Sara Miller, who assumed it was made circa 1930-50. With solid-colored fabrics and traditional patterns, it can be difficult to tell if an Amish quilt is antique or made more recently for the consumer market.

Floral appliqué
Maker unknown
2016
Probably made in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Hand appliquéd, machine pieced, hand quilted
Gift of the Robert & Ardis James Foundation, 2016.030.0004

In 1983 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, following a commission by Brides magazine celebrating Pennsylvania Dutch motifs, creators of the Country Bride pattern ushered in a new era of quiltmaking among the Amish featuring appliqué on white backgrounds. Most Amish quiltmakers had little experience doing appliqué, but newcomers to the region—Hmong refugees, a minority group from Southeast Asia who fled following the Vietnam War—had the requisite skills and the ability to adapt their traditional needlework to a new form. Yet most shops selling quilts in Lancaster County did not acknowledge the Hmong women’s contributions to their quilts. Many quilts like this one, purchased at a benefit auction supporting the Gap Volunteer Fire Department, likely were made at least in part by Hmong seamstresses.

Bedcover made by Hmong sewing group
1985
Made in California
Hand appliquéd, reverse appliquéd, and pieced
Gift of Brigitta E. Bock, 2005.001.0001

The Hmong are a minority ethnic group, historically based in areas of present-day China, Vietnam and Laos, with a tradition of fine needlework skills. Following the Vietnam War, the Lao government persecuted the Hmong for their support of the United States during this conflict. While many ended up in Thai refugee camps, tens of thousands of Hmong refugees resettled in the United States. With little transferable work experience or education, many Hmong women sold their traditional needlework, paj ntaub. This example, made by a Hmong sewing group in California, showcases the intricate appliqué, reverse appliqué and patchwork often seen in Hmong textiles. In southeastern Pennsylvania, as well as in some midwestern communities, Hmong women found work adapting their needlework tradition to the Amish quilt industry.

Paj ntaub (flower cloth)
Blocks made by five Hmong sisters who operate Hmong Pan Dau Art (Warren, Michigan); Quilt designed by Emma Witmer, Witmer’s Quilts (New Holland, PA); Pieced by Lydia Martin; Marked for quilting by Plia Yang with stencils provided by Emma Witmer; Quilted by Effie Peachy and daughter; Binding by Ms. Yung
Dated June 2016
Machine pieced, machine and hand appliquéd, hand quilted
Gift of the Robert & Ardis James Foundation, 2016.030.0001

Out of the controversy over Hmong contributions to “Amish” quilts, Old Order Mennonite businesswoman Emma Witmer has attempted to find harmony, celebrating the contributions of Amish, Mennonite and Hmong needleworkers. Since the 1990s she has designed and sold hybrid quilts featuring Hmong paj ntaub in settings typically found on Amish and Mennonite made quilts. Like many quilts made for the consumer market, Harmony quilts entail a collaboration among individuals each tasked with one step in the process.

Dahlia
Maker unknown
c. 1940-1960
Probably made in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Machine pieced, machine appliquéd, hand quilted
Gift of the Robert & Ardis James Foundation, 2016.030.0003

Like fashion in general, Amish fashion has not stood still. Bedspreads—including the very popular white cotton chenille bedspreads—were popular in Amish homes as early as the 1920s, largely because they were more easily washable, especially compared to wool quilts. This quilt, in the commercially available Dahlia pattern, which has had particular popularity in Amish settlements for decades, is a hybrid between bedspreads and the Amish quilts of the early 1900s. Like other quilts from the Lancaster County settlement, it features exquisite quilting in motifs seen on some of the dark quilts in this exhibit. It also reveals a fashion-forward fringe, perhaps removed from a chenille bedspread or purchased by the yard from a local dry goods store.

Sunshine and Shadow
Maker unknown
c. 1960-1980
Probably made in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Machine pieced, hand quilted
Gift of the Robert & Ardis James Foundation, 2016.030.0002

For Amish women who ran households without high-wire electricity, the advent of easy care synthetic fabrics must have seemed a godsend. Once resilient synthetic fibers like polyester were widely available on the consumer market, Amish women made frequent use of them in both their families’ clothing and in their quilts, which many stitched using leftovers from dressmaking. Sunshine and Shadow, with its small squares, was ideally suited to using up these bits and pieces. Some Amish women loved the way shiny synthetic fabrics caught the light, especially when juxtaposed with other fabrics on a Sunshine and Shadow quilt. Collectors, on the other hand, seemed to despise synthetic fabrics in Amish quilts, and sought out 100% natural fibers, which fit better with their conception of the Amish aesthetic.

Works in the Exhibition

Gallery Photos

This exhibition was made possible through funding from the Nebraska Arts Council and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment. The Nebraska Arts Council, a state agency, has supported this exhibition through its matching grants program funded by the Nebraska Legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment. Visit www.artscouncil.nebraska.gov for more information. Additional support provided by Friends of International Quilt Museum, Moda United Notions, Aurifil, Hughes Brothers and Humanities Nebraska.

Past

Event Date

Friday, October 7, 2016 to Saturday, February 4, 2017